Offering brands, agencies and media companies the world's best mobile solutions and industry expertise since 2004

Dear Reader,

First, everyone here at iLoop Mobile would like to wish you and your family a happy and healthy holiday!

Looking back at 2011, this year will be remembered as key for mobile, social and integrated marketing in general. As you have probably observed over the past several years, marketers have been touting "the year of mobile—Well, it's pretty much happened.

This year has seen mobile marketing go from "hype, desire and dabbling" to a channel that has taken a seat at the CMO's table. While overall mobile marketing spend is still small compared to other channels, it has become a basic fact that mobile is now mission critical to any business or marketing organization, requiring much more attention and certainly more resources and budget.

This year, we've witnessed three events that have dramatically matured mobile marketing and bridged the gap between early mobile adopters and the emergence of mobile as mass marketing:

The now deep market penetration of smart phones, creating a significant consumer desire and appetite for all things mobile and mobile web

The growing adoption of Android lowering the cost of smart phones and tablets, making them affordable to many

The adoption of social media by brands and consumers creating new behaviors and expectations regarding relationships with brands and products

Reviewing 2011 in Numbers with Five Key Takeaways:

We reached 5.3 billion mobile subscribers in 2011—that's 77 percent of the world population. 86% of US mobile users use their mobile phone while watching TV, and one third of users access Facebook from a mobile device. By 2014, mobile Internet is projected to surpass desktop Internet usage (The International Telecommunication Union). Takeaway #1: Still think you don't need a mobile optimized website? Feature phone sales still outnumber smartphones 4:1 (IDC) worldwide. Takeaway #2: If your mobile strategy doesn't include feature phones, it doesn't include a large chunk of your customer base. SMS is the king of mobile messaging with 8 trillion text messages sent in 2011. But consumers are also rapidly embracing mobile email, IM and MMS. Application to person SMS (A2P) such as automated alerts from banks, offers from retailers, and m-tickets is expected to overtake person to person SMS in 2016 (Portio Research). Takeaway #3: Is your opt-in CRM database ready to embrace the mobile revolution?

December 2011 In This Issue

Leadership Thoughts: Five 2010 Key Takeaways and Four 2012 Best Practices

Recent Press Release Past Webinars About Us

Recent Press Release

12/05/2011: WAU Movil Chooses iLoop Mobile As Mobile Marketing

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Past Webinars

Did you miss one of our webinars? View all our past webinars here.

You can also view and download

deck presentations on our Slideshare Channel.

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71% of smartphone users who see TV, print or online ads do a mobile search (Google/Ipsos). Takeaway #4: Will they find your mobile site or your competitors'? The average download price of a mobile app is falling rapidly on all vendor app stores, except Android. 1 in 4 mobile apps once downloaded are never used again. Takeaway #5: Don't ignore key basics of mobile marketing for the glitz of an app. Unless an app offers critical functionality that only an app can provide to your target users, invest in a long term integrated mobile marketing strategy with mobile messaging (SMS/MMS) and an optimized mobile site. A smart phone app is not a mobile marketing strategy.

About Us

iLoop Mobile's solutions include SMS/MMS marketing and

messaging, mobile coupons with point of sale integration, CRM based messaging, location-based services and targeting, mobile sites, HTML5 and apps, mobile content delivery,

and APIs that permit a wide range of other mobile services. iLoop Mobile

offers its solutions platform as a self-service SaaS (software as a service)

license with strategic and professional services when needed.

2012: Looking Ahead With Four Mobile Best Practices Designing a mobile marketing strategy is not simply a collection of isolated mobile campaigns. It involves the integration of mobile into all your digital and traditional marketing channels. At iLoop Mobile, we spend considerable resources sharing our knowledge. Here are some specific, actionable best practices that apply well for mobile. With social media and mobile technologies evolving almost every marketing practice, you'll see marketing priorities to be more and more focused on personalization, relevancy, and sharing capabilities. Best Practice #1 When targeting a specific market, know your customer or audience. Miller Coors launched Coors Light using the National Puerto Rican Day Parade highlighting the word "Emborícuate" which translates "Become Puerto Rican" in Spanish. However it can also be interpreted as "Emborráchate," or to get drunk. An online controversy started and the company ended up donating $75,000 in scholarships to the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Foundation. Best Practice #2 Stay focused on what makes you different. For the new Fiat 500 launch, despite the impressive piece of media, the car maker forgot to tell the basic story, why I would want to buy this car. View the video here. Best Practice #3 For consumers to respond to the overwhelming amount of information they receive, more than ever you'll need to create personal communication that is simple, straight to the point and compelling. Mobile video and text messaging have proven to be more efficient and effective media to connect and engage with customers. Their immediacy is a big advantage, with SMS/MMS messages being read within 4 minutes of reception. Best Practice #4 Make your content sharable. Friends, family and colleagues have become the "gold standard" point of reference when deciding to buy something. Enable your customers to share the content or messages they find valuable there's a good chance the people they know will find them valuable too. Take advantage of the fact the mobile and social media make the barriers to word of mouth vanish. At iLoop Mobile, we have the mobile experience and expertise to make mobile and new media work for you. 2011 saw us surrounded by the best of the best in mobile marketing thought leadership, leveraging our existing in-house expertise with market leading partners such as Lenco Mobile for MMS, Locaid for LBS, and Webtrends for analytics. 2012 should be an even more amazing year and we are excited to continue the journey with you. Warm regards, Virginie Glaenzer, Director of Marketing